TOKYO — The Japanese government ordered a nuclear plant located near a major tectonic fault line to be shut down because of safety fears, Kyodo News reported Friday.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan said the government planned to ask the operator, Chubu Electric, to stop reactors No. 4 and No. 5 at the Hamaoka plant, 125 miles southwest of Tokyo in Shizuoka prefecture. A planned resumption of the No. 3 reactor, which was undergoing planned maintenance, was also stopped.

In announcing the shutdown, Kan noted that Japan’s science ministry estimated an 87 percent chance of a massive magnitude-8.0 earthquake in the region over the next 30 years, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

“This is a decision made for the safety of the people when I consider the special conditions of the Hamaoka plant,” Kan said.

Japan is battling to control the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl at its Fukushima plant, north of Tokyo. The plant was battered by the March 11 tsunami, and four of its six reactors were damaged.

Kan said the shutdown at Hamaoka would be in effect until appropriate safety measures could be taken but gave no time frame. Reactors No. 1 and No. 2 at the plant were decommissioned in 2009.

The move will worsen the already-constrained power supply situation as Japan enters its peak summer period, but Kan said the country would be able to cope.